Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Upside Down Crucifix +Triangle

Sorry things have been slow here at The Jiu Jitsu Journey. It's been the start of my semester and I am teaching two new classes. Plus, I had a keynote address to prepare for and a chapter to finish. Now that things have settled down a bit, I wanted to post something about a technique I had forgotten about even though it is pretty simple and effective. I started thinking about it again after visiting Buffalo Jiu-Jitsu Academy (NY) while attending a recent conference. I had the pleasure of rolling with two really tough students at the gym--which is a good reason to train whenever you travel (but that is a topic for a later post!).

One of the students was a Russian immigrant who has been training for eight years or so. As a result, he was mat savvy. I suspect I outweighed him by forty or fifty pounds. So, I was surprised he was willing to let me pass his guard and take top side control--which is one of my favorite places to be. Whether I had my trailing arm hooked under his far side leg or not, he was amazingly adept at using his far side hand and his legs to get my trailing arm in an upside down crucifix. He would then make sure that my front side arm was trapped under his head (which is where I wanted it anyway!). Then, he would stuff my head between his legs to secure an upside down triangle. Sometimes he would get the choke and sometimes he would focus on my front side arm--which was susceptible to a straight arm lock, a shoulder lock, and a wrist lock.

It was clear he had spent a lot of time perfecting this position. It was also equally clear I hadn't spent nearly enough time trying to learn how to stay out of it and prevent it before getting stuck! Given that it's an offensive technique to be used from bottom side control, I returned home on a mission to add the technique to my arsenal. After showing the technique to several of my black belt instructors, they collectively agreed to work on it with me.

So, to supplement our training, I went lurking around the interwebs for some instructional that might prove useful as I continue my quest to get more effective at using the technique. As always, Youtube delivered! So, below you will find several people showing the technique (each with a focus on different details of the position). While most of these videos focus on finishing the upside down triangle (or the reverse inverted triangle, if you prefer), I think attacking your O's front side arm may be just as viable. That said, watch, learn, and go train!

p.s. The video below by Braulio actually shows the reverse triangle from open guard. But since it's really slick and seems relevant to the technique de jour, I included it!